Medea

Medea is a play by the ancient Greek tragedian Euripides, written in 431 BC. The story draws on the legend of the Argonauts: Medea, princess of Colchis, betrayed her father and left her homeland to help Jason obtain the Golden Fleece, even scheming to kill King Pelias, and followed her husband to Corinth. Years later, Jason abandons Medea for political advantage and plans to marry Glauce, the princess of Corinth. Betrayed, Medea turns from sorrowful pleading to utter revenge: she kills the bride and King Creon with a poisoned robe, finally kills her own two sons with her own hands, and then leaves Corinth in the dragon chariot given by the sun god Helios, leaving Jason wailing in despair. The play consists of the nurse's opening, the chorus's lyrical songs, layered dialogues between Medea and the nurse, Creon, and Jason, and the final exit; the plot is tight and the conflict fierce. Through Medea's voice, Euripides makes a sharp indictment of women's subordinate position in marriage and society, and probes the tension between passion, honor, city order, and the boundaries of human ethics. The play did not win first prize at the Athenian dramatic competition, but its later influence was immense, and it is regarded as one of the most moving tragedies in Western literature. The most widely circulated Chinese version is Luo Niansheng's translation, made from Earl's critical edition of the Greek text, with elegant and restrained language and a translator's preface and notes. This entry corresponds to the People's Literature Publishing House edition in the Foreign Literary Classics Series (the Grid Edition), which publishes Medea together with The Trojan Women in one volume.